With the excellent release to The World Is Not Enough, I wanted to get a conversation going about GoldenEye. What are your thoughts? Why do you like it or...Dislike it? Okay, so first of all, GoldenEye was the first Bond movie I really go exposed to. I was born in 1990. I am a 90s kid through and through. I grew up playing the Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007 which really connected me to the movie as well. So do I feel that I am bias towards this score because of my childhood memories to it? Maybe a tiny bit, but over all no. Keep in mind as I write my review, I'm an author writes fiction action and romance stories. I used this score for a lot of writing time.
Eric Serra created the perfect music for that time period. Like it or hate it, Bond needed to be reinvented and his style of music fit pop culture. Was it a John Barry melodic classic? Not by any means, but it serves the music perfectly as well as giving us some great tracks. My favorite track by Serra has to be The GoldenEye Overture with Run, Shoot, & Jump being a close second. The love theme is powerful. The track Two Faced is a beautiful track that showcases the heart break between 006 and 007. 006 was scarred and Bond felt betrayed, this music portrays it. I love Eric Serra's end title track "Experience of Love". A few unreleased tracks I love is the Tiger Helicopter explosion, Bond and Natalya being taken to Defense Minister Mishkin, and the Dam.
Now my most favorite track from this movie is also unreleased and not by Serra. Tank Drive in St. Petersburg by John Altman. This by far the most powerful track of the entire score and I still find it a film score criminal act that it has yet to see the light of day. I love this track more than most others in all of Bond. And that's saying a lot because I love my Bond music.
Personally, I loved the score. It really fit the tone and setting of a post-Cold War Bond. I didn't even know Serra's score had a bad reputation among fans until only a few years ago, nor did I know about his heavy reluctance to use the Bond Theme (I'm glad he did use it though...or was directed to use it...whichever).
It wasn't my first Bond movie. I'd seen Dalton's films at a younger age, but GOLDENEYE came out in my freshman year of high school, so the Brosnan-era was my first theatrical exposure to Bond--and his first entry was one heck of a way to get into 007 in the theaters.
While I want to see a new expanded edition of TND, I certainly wouldn't mind it all if this score were to come next...
Great film with an o.k. score..Serra did well with the atmospherics . The music for the graveyard scene is quite good. The love theme is lovely. But the action music is subpar.
Plus he didn't write the title song nor did he incorporate it into the underscore.
I hated it when I heard the CD. I loved it as soon as I heard it in context. And still love it to this day (I prefer it to Arnold's scores for Brosnan)
Tiger Helicopter Explosion is one of my most sought-after unreleased Bond cues!
I hated it when I heard the CD. I loved it as soon as I heard it in context. And still love it to this day (I prefer it to Arnold's scores for Brosnan)
Tiger Helicopter Explosion is one of my most sought-after unreleased Bond cues!
Ohhh...that IS a good piece of music! Now I'm starting to hope this comes next from LLL
Hated this score at the time, still hate it today. The most effective use of music was the tank chase, which everyone knows was re-scored. It's too bad the producers didn't have the good sense to re-score the whole film.
If David Arnold is reading these forums, name your price to re-score it and I'll make it happen (well, after I make a billion or so dollars).
The GoldenEye score works perfectly within the film, and many of the tracks (“The GoldenEye Overture,” “We Share the Same Passions,” “Whispering Statues,” “Run, Shoot, Jump,” Altman’s tank chase music) play great on their own. That said, some of Serra’s music was mind-boggling. I’m thinking specifically of his original tank chase music, which was just astoundingly bad. With GoldenEye, when Serra was on he was very on, and when he was off he was way, way off. I’m glad he just did the one. The gunbarrel, Tiger helicopter missile attack, and Altman’s original tank chase track would be great to see released. There are several more Bonds I’d prefer to see expanded first, but I’d be as thrilled as anyone to see a LLL GoldenEye.
Years ago on rec.music.movies (remember that board?) I mentioned that John Altman had scored the tank chase scene -- prompting someone else to "correct" my post, by saying "Actually his name is John Ottman".
Hated this score at the time, still hate it today. The most effective use of music was the tank chase, which everyone knows was re-scored. It's too bad the producers didn't have the good sense to re-score the whole film.
If David Arnold is reading these forums, name your price to re-score it and I'll make it happen (well, after I make a billion or so dollars).
I once started a thread "Shirley Walker's GOLDENEYE" Use the search engine.
If LLL releases GOLDENEYE, then I hope Michael J. Lewis's unused first score is also on it. The score was not fully recorded, but the (if I remember correctly ...) recorded about 25 or 26 minutes should be included for the sake of completeness. I hope EON let they do this.
I didn't know there was an unused score by Michael J. Lewis. I would love to hear that. Just get me the dang Altman cue and I'll be happy.
The Tiger Helicopter Explosion cue is just something else. It's like a souped up version of the GoldenEye Overture.
I also wanted to add that Run, Shoot, Jump overall is just a really epic piece. You feel the intensity of the moment and the importance of each scene that music plays in. The version used in the climax when Trevelyan and Bond are fighting on the Antenna sounds a bit different so I would hope we get both.
The track where Bond lands in Russia is pretty great too and from what I can tell is unreleased. Someone earlier said that they would not be sad if LLL released GoldenEye before TND. Well, I love TND and it's my favorite Arnold score, but I would not be sad either.
John Altman's tank chase cue was recorded brilliantly by Silva Screen if anyone is unaware. Included on Bond compilations.
... recorded brilliantly ...? Maybe ... but I don't like it very much as there is a persistent beat throughout most of the track which I find annoying.
As for the film and its score: after 6 long years, wondering whether James Bond [would] Return I was very disappointed with the film ... Oh there are great parts to it and it wasn't bottom of my (then) list but I'd expected better. And the score was part of the problem ... it just didn't work for me.
And yet, over the years, I've come to like the score on CD much more. I still think it's not right for the film, making what is a dark, dour outing for my favourite franchise even more so. I still rate this film in the bottom quartile when I rate all the JB007 films ... but thanks to the last three outings, it has moved further from the bottom!
Would I buy an expanded release? Probably ... it's remains a far better listen than the last two awful scores, even if it's not a patch on David Arnold's JB007 scores.
Also, while I don't generally like the soundtrack, in a weird way it works really well for the story as an embodiment of the cold war, the collapse of a hollowed out Soviet Union at the end of the 80s, and the transition into the 90s, and the shadowy KGB.
The hollow synths, processed chants, echoing metallic percussion - it has that coldness and creepiness.
Also, any time Serra is playing the bond theme (Dam scene, Tiger explosion) it works ok, plus the music when the radar dish emerges from the water and "Run, Shoot, Jump".
I actually think this would be a good score to have an expanded release, which would probably help its presentation a lot.
John Altman's tank chase cue was recorded brilliantly by Silva Screen if anyone is unaware. Included on Bond compilations.
I like that version and listen to it often. Thing is once I hear it in the movies the rerecording loses a lot of its feel. The film version packs much more of a punch and is much sleeker. I can't explain it, there's just a noticeable difference in the two. The film version beats the rerecording by far.
With the excellent release to The World Is Not Enough, I wanted to get a conversation going about GoldenEye. What are your thoughts? Why do you like it or...Dislike it?
I like it. It provides a unique take on Bond music and it matches the darker atmosphere of some of the scenes very well. It doesn't reach the greatness of the Barry scores, of course, but I do like the sound it makes.
